“Por Conveniencia en el Servicio”: Dictatorship, Modernization, and Nursing in the Dominican Republic (1950-1961)

• In Event: Gender, Modernization, and the State in 20th Century Hispaniola

Abstract

During the 1950s, the Rafael Trujillo regime (1930-1961) reformed the Dominican public health system, claiming “modernization” as the prime goal. Paradoxically, nursing did not constitute a key element in these plans. The Trujillo administration expanded services by building hospitals and other facilities, while failing to upgrade nursing qualifications, salaries, and incentives to fit new international standards.

This paper looks at the interplay among international health agendas, the Dominican government’s priorities in the modernization of its public health system, and the various gender discourses employed by both. My findings point to a multivalent debate on the role of nurses as health professionals, with input from the U.S. private and public entities (Rockefeller Foundation, Office for Inter American Affairs), the multinational organizations (Pan American Sanitary Bureau, World Health Organization), and the Trujillo regime. Why did Dominican nursing only receive lip service at the local level as a vital element of “modern” health, although international agencies at the Pan American level insisted on its inclusion in all reform programs? Conflicting visions of medical modernity were reflected primarily in negotiations over a state-sponsored nursing school, with arguments over its management, budget, admissions, curriculum, and its relation to the university. The process points to deep-seated issues of class, gender, and religious bias – with decided interference by the Catholic Church, which ran the majority of health facilities at the time and opposed the presence of (black) Protestant nurses in state hospitals.

Author

• Neici M Zeller, William Paterson University